Sermon Audio Sermon manuscript: God’s Law is plain in our readings this morning. It is God’s Law that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We should also love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Our Gospel reading further elaborates on the second part of this definition of God’s Law—what it means to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. There is more that could be said, therefore, about the first part—what it means to love God with all that you can muster. Perhaps you can think on that yourself later today—what does it mean to love God with one’s whole being? As far as this sermon goes, we will deal with Jesus’s explanation of what it means to love our neighbor. There are three things that I’d like to point out to you today. First, I’d like to speak about how good God’s Law is—how appropriate and helpful and beautiful it is. Second, I’d like to show you how this thing that is appropriate and helpful and beautiful is not your friend. It is not warm and cuddly as you might suppose. Finally, I’d like to show you how the Law can become sweet and mild and good to you again. Let’s begin with how the Law is superb and praiseworthy. Our Gospel reading is known as the parable of the Good Samaritan and for good reason. The Samaritan is good—really good. While the priest and the Levite pass by on the other side of the road, the Samaritan was moved to compassion when he saw the man who had been attacked and abused by the robbers. All too often people are liable to blame the victim for what happened to them. What’s more is that all too often, such reasoning is not too far off the mark. Perhaps if this fellow had been more prudent he wouldn’t have found himself in the bad position he was in. Icy hearts are good at this kind of reasoning. They can make stinginess and meanness sound like praiseworthy virtues! The Samaritan was not so cold hearted. He loved the man and helped him. And, boy, did he ever help him! I’m sure that you’ve heard me speak to this over the years, because it is one of my favorite places to go when the question comes up of what the Law requires of us. This Samaritan dropped what he was doing and took up this unfortunate man’s cause as his own. As I’ve said over the years, the Samaritan could have given the man a couple hundred bucks and left it at that. As it is he went the extra mile. He bandaged him and tried to make him as comfortable as possible. He put him on his own animal and walked beside him for miles on the hot dusty road until they came to a place where they could stay. As you know, there isn’t a hotel on every street corner, so they might have had to go some distance. The Samaritan stayed with him and nursed him all night long. After all that he still gave him a couple hundred bucks—telling the innkeeper to look after the man until he returns. Then he’ll pay the man’s bill—however big it might be. Why did the Samaritan do all this? There’s only one possible explanation: he wanted to. If he didn’t want to do it, then he would have easily found a way to get out of it. As it is, he made it his goal (in a sense it was his hobby—it made him happy) to trudge alongside him and shell out his hard earned cash. I challenge anybody to prove to me how what this man did is anything other than excellent. It is so appropriate, so helpful, so beautiful. It is so common for children to be taught that they should be as glorious and accomplished as they possibly can be—they should be a president or a CEO or something. That is all garbage compared to the goodness and beauty of loving one’s neighbor as it is laid out for us in Jesus’s parable. If you would be truly great, then sell what you have and give it to the poor. Then go and follow Jesus. Now I said at the beginning that even though the Law is so good and beautiful, it is not your friend. How come? It’s because the Law and you are not on the same page. What you want and what the Law of God wants are not the same. There are a